First install OK, second fails

[Mike Bernstein]

My disk setup is as follows: C: SATA Raid 0, 220GB with Windows XP
installed; D: on PATA disk, partition of about 85GB with data files; H: on
PATA disk (same as D logical partition of about 68GB, empty.

I initially tried the Vista Beta 2 install from XP installing on H:. The
SATA driver was given to the installation. This was successful. However
installing a scanner driver from XP made the installation un-bootable. I had
therefore to try again.

Before doing so I wanted to get my PC back to the starting point. Firstly I
ran 'bootsect.exe' from XP to set the boot system back to the legacy format.
I then deleted everything in my C: root that had to do with the Vista boot
(the Boot directory and all the associated files as well as the 2 temporary
directories). I then re-formatted my H: drive and tried the installation
again. However, on this occasion the installation fails on the first
re-boot. An error saying that a file cannot be found in one of the 2
temporary directories that are installed by the Vista setup on the C: drive.

I have repeated this several times with no luck. Something must have changed
between the first installation and the subsequent attempts but I cannot
figure what. I am stumped. Does anyone have any idea?

Mike Bernstein

 

[Mike Bernstein]

I am one step further:

The problem described below was caused by installing a second non-essential
driver at the initial installation stage at every installation attempt after
the first. When I ignore the nag dialog for the second driver the first
re-boot works as it should. However, I am now stuck at the second re-boot.
On this occasion, the error given at boot is that
'Windows\system32\winload.exe' is missing or corrupt. This, of course is
nonsense. The BCD is correctly looking at 'H:\Windows\system32\winload.exe',
which file is confirmed to be present.

Why should the Vista boot-loader located on SATA drive C: not be able to
find H:, which is located on a standard IDE PATA drive?

Mike Bernstein

 

[Mike Bernstein]

Its OK, I played around with the IDE PATA disk and I have now managed a
successful installation of the Vista Beta 2 in twin boot with XP.

Not that anyone was about to answer my queries anyway.

Mike Bernstein

 

[Guest]

I've got a similar proble. Mine crashes at the first reboot and says the
imagedrv.sys "critical system driver is missing or corrupt".

Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[Guest]

What did you do with IDE PATA Disk to get it to work.

 

[Guest]

I have a similar situation. What did you do to your PATA drive to get it to
work for installing Vista.

 

[Mike Bernstein]

It may have nothing to do with it but the PATA disk I used was 160GB in
total. Although XP seemed to calculate its size OK I saw a reference to the
fact that 48-bit LBA support for disks above 137GB is not available without
a registry tweak. I applied that tweak and the Vista installation worked.
The tweak is:

Registry Settings
System Key:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Atapi\Parameters]
Value Name: EnableBigLba
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (0 = disabled, 1 = enabled)


Mike Bernstein

 

[Mike Bernstein]

Oh and most importantly, I also re-formatted the PATA disk before the Vista
installation.

Mike Bernstein

It may have nothing to do with it but the PATA disk I used was 160GB in
total. Although XP seemed to calculate its size OK I saw a reference to
the fact that 48-bit LBA support for disks above 137GB is not available
without a registry tweak. I applied that tweak and the Vista installation
worked. The tweak is:

Registry Settings
System Key:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Atapi\Parameters]
Value Name: EnableBigLba
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (0 = disabled, 1 = enabled)


Mike Bernstein

What did you do with IDE PATA Disk to get it to work.